Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Français Contact UsHelpSearchCanada Site
CIHR HomeAbout CIHRWhat's NewFunding OpportunitiesFunding Decisions
CIHR | IRSC
About CIHR
CIHR Institutes
Funding Health Research
Knowledge Translation and Commercialization
Partnerships
Major Strategic Initiatives
International Cooperation
Ethics
News and Media
Publications
 
CIHR > Major Strategic Initiatives

Listening for Direction on Injury: 2004 Executive Summary Report

Injury is the leading cause of death for Canadians between the ages of 1 and 44 years and ranks fourth among causes of death for all ages. It is a major cause of premature mortality-the leading cause of Potential Years of Life Lost (PYLL) in Canada before the age of 70. Based on the metric of economic burden, injury ranks fourth, yet among the top ranked disease groups, research spending on injury prevention and control strategies ranks fifteenth.

The burden of injury can be reduced by targeted investments in research. Canadian-based research, international studies, literature scans, and stakeholder consultations each support this premise. Leadership and coordination, and sustained infrastructure support, have resulted in significant gains in combating injury in other jurisdictions.

Similar opportunities exist in Canada where the logical champions for research initiatives on the prevention and control of injury are the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Injury is explicitly identified in the mandates of several institutes, and is implicit in the strategic focus of many of the others. However, no one institute is the logical home for injury research among the CIHR.

The Listening for Direction on Injury (LFD-Injury) project had as its main objective to seek strategic direction for an injury research program that could have a significant impact on the health of Canadians through reducing the burden described above. The project conceived 'Injury' as a new, high-profile national research focus led by a multi-institute consortium with significant participation from a wide range of Canadian, and potentially international, partners.

The eighteen-month LFD-Injury process of research and consultation brought together researchers, decision makers and programmers from diverse fields within four broad areas: unintentional injury prevention, violence and suicide prevention, acute care of injury and rehabilitation of injury. It was jointly led by CIHR and the Canadian Injury Research Network (CIRNet), with coordination by SMARTRISK and additional support from their sponsor, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). The process was guided by a national scientific advisory committee, and consisted of commissioned background documents, facilitated workshops, a synthesis meeting, and a final report. This document summarizes the key findings emerging from this work, and lays out a strategic plan for a CIHR-led injury research agenda.

Here are some of the key recommendations:

  1. That the CIHR take 'Injury' to Phase II as a multi-institute strategic priority. This phase would include a number of activities, including:

    1. developing and executing a partnership strategy;
    2. developing a knowledge translation strategy;
    3. developing and posting a request for applications (RFA) to fund a minimum of five centres of excellence modelled on the Community Alliances for Health Research (CAHR) or the Community University Research Alliance (CURA) grants. These centres would promote interdisciplinary research, capacity building and knowledge translation for injury prevention and control. Phase III funding for these centres would begin in 2005/06 and would be sustained for a minimum of five years.
  1. That the CIHR continue to sponsor the initiative through operational support of a national scientific advisory committee (SAC).
  2. That the CIHR commission a number of critical synthesis ('state of the science') documents in areas where the LFD-Injury project shows that additional evidence is needed to justify specific priorities where insufficient time was available in Phase I to commission such work.
  3. That the CIHR commission an internal review of its peer review committee structure, composition, and processes to ensure that research across the broad injury spectrum as conceived through the LFD-Injury project is not being discouraged or disadvantaged in any way through the absence of natural peer review committee 'homes', inadequate expertise amongst committee members, failure to engage injury research experts in the peer review process, or other impediments.
Created: 2004-07-27
Modified: 2004-07-27
Reviewed: 2004-07-27
Print